Asian Parliamentarians Vow to Pursue in Sustainable Development

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, October 19, 2002

Asian Parliamentarians Vow to Pursue in Sustainable Development

Asian parliamentarians vowed in Beijing on Friday to act more effectively to ensure that governments give dueattention to population and development programs.

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Asian parliamentarians vowed in Beijing on Friday to act more effectively to ensure that governments give dueattention to population and development programs.

The parliamentarians made the pledge in the Beijing Declaration 2002, a document passed by the Seventh General Assembly of the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD) which ended Friday.

The declaration urges all parliaments to continue to formulate and improve laws and regulations on population control, environmental protection, resource management, and disaster prevention and reduction.

It says poverty is prevalent in the region with more than one billion people living below the poverty line in spite of economic growth, and poverty is closely linked to various aspects of population.

It urges developed countries to ensure that increased resourcesare allocated to population and reproductive health, and HIV or AIDS related programs in their official donations and assistance. It also urges the United Nations, especially the United Nations Population Fund to continue to support the parliamentarians' involvement in population and development programs at national andregional levels.

The declaration says, "We, participants of the AFPPD, believe that with the common efforts of parliamentarians from various countries, the AFPPD will continuously develop and make greater contributions to the realization of population growth in harmony with socio-economic development, resource utilization and environmental protection for the sake of sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific Region."

The AFPPD leadership elections were held at the end of the two-day assembly. Yoshio Yatsu from Japan was re-elected as chairman of the organization.

Peng Peiyun, vice-chairwoman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress said at the closing ceremony that implementing suitable population policy, eradicating poverty, improving women's social status, promoting healthy reproduction and curbing the spread of AIDS were the common choices of all countries to achieve sustainable development. She called for more parliamentarians to join the work on population and development.

The AFPPD, set up on October 30, 1981, in China, is an international inter-parliamentary organization that aims to promote communication and cooperation among Asian and Oceanic nations regarding world population and development.

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